Other NAS Drive purchase Advise

Napster

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as the title says I'm after a NAS Drive I have 4x500HD in my cupboard and looking for a nas that will take 2 or more looking for cheapest and most reliable one to use this will be running via virgin router :)

cheers
 
Martin if your budget can stretch to a synology server I would recommend that is an nas drive and a whole lot more :) I have been using a dsj13 for a couple of years. I have 2 2tb drives installed in it.
 
HP microserver, been using mine with WD Reds 4TB with hacked firmware runs sweet.

You can pick them up cheap of ebay, with the hacked firmware you can install a 5th drive in the top bay
 
HP microserver, been using mine with WD Reds 4TB with hacked firmware runs sweet.

You can pick them up cheap of ebay, with the hacked firmware you can install a 5th drive in the top bay
I got my N54Ls for £100 each (£150 but cashback) but they are sought after and I think I saw them up to about £200 now. I originally got mine just to use as NAS but they are capable of lots more.

I'm looking for PATA NAS to use up some of my old drives but no one makes those now.
 
repurpose old computer bits and FreeNAS? Including old laptops.
NAS doesnt have to be powerful - a Raspberry Pi and 2 x USB HDDs will do.

If you don't want to build yourself SCAN do a Thecus N2310 2 bay for £99

I built an integrated mini itx mb, 4 x hotswap backplane and built a simple case out of perspex for it, stuck some black hoops on the drive fronts for easy pullage and it looks cool see through.

@Spectre can't you use something like a couple of Gadgetpool PC-6 IDE to SATA IDE Bi-Directional in a box?
 
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repurpose old computer bits and FreeNAS? Including old laptops.
NAS doesnt have to be powerful - a Raspberry Pi and 2 x USB HDDs will do.

If you don't want to build yourself SCAN do a Thecus N2310 2 bay for £99

I built an integrated mini itx mb, 4 x hotswap backplane and built a simple case out of perspex for it, stuck some black hoops on the drive fronts for easy pullage and it looks cool see through.

@Spectre can't you use something like a couple of Gadgetpool PC-6 IDE to SATA IDE Bi-Directional in a box?
Possibly, but I'm a bit dubious about converters. Even when some of these drives were in PCs with PATA PCI RAID (as JBOD) cards I was getting quite a few "delayed write" errors so that sort of put me off any additional hardware. It's probably more cost effective to just ignore them until something comes my way. I still have a few old PCs knocking about they could go in but I though a NAS would be neater :). Due to their vintage I did want to use them in a RAID too.
 
Another vote here for the HP MicroServers [emoji1360] I have one running Ubuntu Server with 8TB of storage space and purrs like a kitten


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
How about the Dell PowerEdge T20-3708 which has an Intel Xeon E3-1225V3 / 3.2 GHz (Quad-Core) CPU, 4GB ram, 1TB HDD?

Was thinking of getting this running Windows Server 2012 R2.

Can anyone comment on reliability of Dell?
 
How about the Dell PowerEdge T20-3708 which has an Intel Xeon E3-1225V3 / 3.2 GHz (Quad-Core) CPU, 4GB ram, 1TB HDD?

Was thinking of getting this running Windows Server 2012 R2.

Can anyone comment on reliability of Dell?
Dell will have good reliability but the T20s are quite large.

There is a picture in here which compares them to the HP Microservers:

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Size is big but i'm thinking more of the CPU spec. HPgen8 one only has a celeron dual core I believe whereas the Dell has a xeon quad core.

Is it possible to have both Windows Server on it and ubunto on it (I wish to replace my monthly VPS with this machine as well)?
 
Size is big but i'm thinking more of the CPU spec. HPgen8 one only has a celeron dual core I believe whereas the Dell has a xeon quad core.

Is it possible to have both Windows Server on it and ubunto on it (I wish to replace my monthly VPS with this machine as well)?
Do you know if the disk will be MBR or GPT? I'm sure that will come into it if dual booting.
 
Size is big but i'm thinking more of the CPU spec. HPgen8 one only has a celeron dual core I believe whereas the Dell has a xeon quad core.

Is it possible to have both Windows Server on it and ubunto on it (I wish to replace my monthly VPS with this machine as well)?

Just use ESXi and you can run both in VM's at the same time.

I'm running an ML310 v2 G8 (Xeon E3-1225 v3) and have about 6 VM's going (but then I do have 32GB RAM). My array has 3 x 2TB, but I only use that for backups as i also have a 12TB QNAP TS-569 Pro NAS.

Depends what you want to do really?


@Napster 819185-421 | HPE ProLiant Gen8 Intel Celeron G1610T Dual-Core 2.30GHz 2MB 4 x Non Hotplug Microserve - Laptops Direct (You can then install FreeNAS). It then gives also you the flexibility to also run it as a server with dual use as a NAS (again, if you run FreeNAS as a VM)

Alternatively a two (or 4) bay QNAP or Synology is a good call too (they also have some additional functionality over and above straight storage presentation)


P.S. Hello everyone ;) (been a while)
 
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Just use ESXi and you can run both in VM's at the same time.

I'm running an ML310 v2 G8 (Xeon E3-1225 v3) and have about 6 VM's going (but then I do have 32GB RAM). My array has 3 x 2TB, but I only use that for backups as i also have a 12TB QNAP TS-569 Pro NAS.

Depends what you want to do really?


@Napster 819185-421 | HPE ProLiant Gen8 Intel Celeron G1610T Dual-Core 2.30GHz 2MB 4 x Non Hotplug Microserve - Laptops Direct (You can then install FreeNAS). It then gives also you the flexibility to also run it as a server with dual use as a NAS (again, if you run FreeNAS as a VM)

Alternatively a two (or 4) bay QNAP or Synology is a good call too (they also have some additional functionality over and above straight storage presentation)


P.S. Hello everyone ;) (been a while)

Virtualising it is a good idea.

I like the look of those ProLiant Gen8s for that price. Dual Ethernet too, if you need it. They are more CPU limited but good for things like NAS, offline backup, running a few services...
 
Do you know if the disk will be MBR or GPT? I'm sure that will come into it if dual booting.
I was going to use MBR as it's a little easier gaining access to HDD if required should OS refuse to boot, etc with a boot disc. I have found it difficult finding a boot disc that supports GPT.

Just use ESXi and you can run both in VM's at the same time.

I'm running an ML310 v2 G8 (Xeon E3-1225 v3) and have about 6 VM's going (but then I do have 32GB RAM). My array has 3 x 2TB, but I only use that for backups as i also have a 12TB QNAP TS-569 Pro NAS.

Depends what you want to do really?
It's nearly £200 more for that ML310 v2 with Xeon CPU.

Can you run EXSi on the Dell model?
 
I was going to use MBR as it's a little easier gaining access to HDD if required should OS refuse to boot, etc with a boot disc. I have found it difficult finding a boot disc that supports GPT.

It's nearly £200 more for that ML310 v2 with Xeon CPU.

Can you run EXSi on the Dell model?
I think any of the VMWare stuff will run, but you might want to increase the RAM, the stuff fitted will be ECC so 8GB ECC might be ~£42 if I guess right. You don't need ECC but if it is cheap enough you may as well have it.

Just noticed they have a feature which HP calls "iLO" or integrated Lights Out. It's a remote management interface (like Dell Remote Access Card) that probably lets you access BIOS remotely, install remotely, monitor etc. The bit I don't like is that it mentions "licences" for using this iLO feature when I look it up on their site.
 
I was going to use MBR as it's a little easier gaining access to HDD if required should OS refuse to boot, etc with a boot disc. I have found it difficult finding a boot disc that supports GPT.

It's nearly £200 more for that ML310 v2 with Xeon CPU.

Can you run EXSi on the Dell model?

Yes, the ML310e is expensive, but my needs are different and I was just highlighting what I had running, doesn't mean to say you need to as there are many options open to you. I wish I hadn't now though as I'm looking to setup cluster to test vMotion and SRM, so means me purchasing another :|

In regards to using ESXi, there isn't any reason why you shouldn't be able to. Memory really will be your main limiting factor. You might be able to purchase non-ECC, as ECC is more expensive (quite considerably normally) to take it to 32GB, but its a motherboard/supportability issue if you can.

Cheapest T20 I could find: Dell PowerEdge T20 Xeon E3-1225V3 3.2 GHz 4GB RAM 1TB HDD Tower Server on Servers Direct

Matched ECC: Crucial 16GB Kit (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1866 ECC UDIMM CT5092324 | PowerEdge T20 | Crucial UK

ECC: 1x or 2 x https://www.serversplus.com/servers/memory/kingston_memory/kvr16e11/8

Non-ECC: TBC as I was reading on a few forums this is fixed configuration, so will not post with non-ECC, need to do a little more digging so if this is the case, suddenly other options may become more attractive. i.e. micro server, or even two microservers ;)

The ML110 was also a big 'home use' favorite for people, but they dropped the range and then re-introduced it with the G9's so the price rocketed. Dell have a good server range and i use them myself regularly work wise. The Microserver might also be an option if budget doesn't stretch.

Just remember also the Xeon in the low end server ranges also don't have hyperthreading, which is not really a big deal tbh.

OverClockers T20 Owners Thread: **Dell PowerEdge T20 Mini Tower Server - Owner Thread** - Page 3 - Overclockers UK Forums

I think any of the VMWare stuff will run, but you might want to increase the RAM, the stuff fitted will be ECC so 8GB ECC might be ~£42 if I guess right. You don't need ECC but if it is cheap enough you may as well have it.

Just noticed they have a feature which HP calls "iLO" or integrated Lights Out. It's a remote management interface (like Dell Remote Access Card) that probably lets you access BIOS remotely, install remotely, monitor etc. The bit I don't like is that it mentions "licences" for using this iLO feature when I look it up on their site.

Licences Smicences... :p

Its only for the 'advanced' features, which is generally federation etc. Only downside if you don't licence is you don't get the remote java/.net console, but it's relatively easy to find a suitable licence.

I'm also pretty sure you need to licence the iDRAC on a Dell also anyway if you want the 'extras'
 
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